


Sunburned

by orangelemon (etoilephilante)



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Summer, Summer Romance, it's an ode to mingi and summer vibes let me live i'm whipped and quarantined, pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:46:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24041539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etoilephilante/pseuds/orangelemon
Summary: The year they turned eighteen, Yunho’s first kiss was stolen by his best friend’s cold and plump cherry red lips. They had spent the evening all together on the blue court, eating popsicles after popsicles.(Yunho was sixteen when he realized he was in love with his best friend, and at twenty-one, it hasn't changed.)
Relationships: Jeong Yunho/Song Mingi
Comments: 15
Kudos: 148
Collections: Sunflowers' Petals





	Sunburned

**Author's Note:**

> hi!
> 
> a few days ago this shooting from the illusion era ateez did was going around and it has inspired us. us meaning me and my bestfriends and all three of us decided to write a ficlet abt one pairing of our choice inspired by this shoot. all three works will be posted in a collection ([here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Sunflowers_Petals)), amélie has already posted a [woosan](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24009202) and ako wrote a [jongjoong](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24061417) so please read them as well! 
> 
> i got yungi and it turns out that even tho it's my favorite pairing, it's the first fic i write abt them lol
> 
> anyways, enjoy!

Yunho remembered the day his heart had skipped, his throat had dried up, the tip of his fingers had tingled, and he had understood he had just fallen in love with his best friend. They were sixteen, sweaty and breathless, the sun was shining high in the sky, and their backs were sunburned, yet there was no way they would stop running after the basketball. They were two lanky teenagers who had grown too fast and weren’t used to the length of their own limbs, awkward and constantly tripping on their feet, and so many new emotions blooming in their stomachs. Yunho had chosen to ignore the way Mingi’s smile, his cheeks red with effort, his pointy nose peeling from too much time spent outside in the summer without bothering to put sunscreen on, all of it suddenly looked cute. That day, he had focused back on the game on the blue basket court, not thinking twice about the realization that Mingi’s laugh was as comforting as popsicles on particularly hot days.

When they were seventeen, Mingi had joined their group of friends holding hands with a girl from their class, and it was the cause of their first fight. The school year had ended a few weeks earlier with rumors going around their school that the prettiest girl had a crush on Mingi, who had recently shaken the hearts of their whole year with his sunshine smile and summer rain eyes. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to Yunho when his best friend kissed a girl in front of him, San whistling obnoxiously at them, and yet it had felt like his world had stopped spinning on its axis and Mingi had become another person. Later that day, when their friends had left and Mingi had told his girlfriend he would walk her home, Yunho had found himself alone on the court, the basketball in his hands, and decided it wouldn’t matter if he missed his curfew. His parents did scold him when he had come home at midnight after roaming around like the angsty teenager he was. It was childish and mean to give Mingi the silence treatment for three days before being won over by his sad puppy eyes, but at seventeen, Yunho didn’t want his best friend to date girls and spend less time with them in their spot.

The year they turned eighteen, Yunho’s first kiss was stolen by his best friend's cold and plump cherry red lips. They had spent the evening all together on the blue court, eating popsicles after popsicles, and Hongjoong and Seonghwa had brought beer to celebrate the two eldest of the group’s high school graduation. The summer night was filled with electricity, an incoming thunderstorm weighing on them all and making them sweat under a dark sky freckled with constellations, even laughing was tiring. They were all sprawled on the ground, disheveled after spending the day tossing the basketball at each other, but they had all yelled in a drunken joy when San had suggested a game of truth or dare. It wasn’t a secret that Yunho had never dated anyone, but he couldn’t keep himself from blushing, ashamed when San had teased him after Yunho had shyly admitted that he had never had his first kiss. And it was blurry and awkward when he thought back about the memory of Mingi squeezing his cheeks ridiculously between his clammy palms.

“ _Now, you can’t make fun of him anymore_ ,” his best friend had slurred, giggly, his freshly dyed red hair static on his head, before he had pecked him.

It was nothing much, it tasted like red berries, cheap beers, and the cigarettes Mingi had stolen to his parents; it was a cold breath and chapped skin hitting in a weird angle his own lips. It lasted two seconds during which Yunho had kept his stunned eyes wide open, while his heart had threatened to stab through his ribcage, amazed by the length of Mingi’s lashes and the small crease in between his eyebrows while he was trying to hold back his snicker. They had never talked about it again, and Yunho was still happy his best friend was his first kiss.

They were nineteen when Yunho whispered scared words to Mingi. They were alone on the blue basket court, it was a weekday, spring had let its place to summer, and they had decided to skip their last day of school. Soon, when fall would start to paint the green trees above their heads in yellow, orange, red, and brown, they would both stop being children and start the wild years of college. Yunho had his eyes riveted to the empty playground, his chin on his knees that he had brought against his chest as they were sitting under the tall basket hoop, Mingi was lying next to him, the ball on his stomach.

“ _I like someone,_ ” Yunho had muttered, ready to throw his heart up.

“ _Oh? I thought basketball games were the only thing that mattered and that girls were yucky,_ ” his best friend had made fun of him, wiggling his eyebrows.

“ _It’s a guy._ ” The silence that had followed had seemed long, too long, and Yunho still remembered how he had been too scared to look at Mingi’s face, to see if Mingi had understood or if he was disgusted.

“ _Who’s he?_ ” The boy’s voice was weirdly husky and calm, but when Yunho had eventually looked down at him, his cheeks flushed, his best friend had a small smile tugging on the corners of his mouth.

“ _You don’t know him,_ ” he had drawled a lie, his breath a little shaky, not yet ready to confess, but happy his best friend was smiling up at him.

Mingi was bright, he was red, he was loud and obnoxious, and he was also the relieving breeze during a heatwave, the shadow of a building making him shiver when he was hiding from the sun. He hadn’t asked more questions, he just had intertwined their fingers together and forced him up, running away with a playful laugh that revealed all his teeth and gums and hid the sparkling stars in his pupils behind crescent moons, after tossing the ball at him.

On the scorching hot day of august Mingi turned twenty, children were screaming on the playground behind them, and they were laughing in the middle the basketball court, sitting around a half-eaten birthday cake. Never they had left this spot behind, not even after they all graduated and started college, they still spent each summer getting sunburned, tossing the ball at each other. Mingi had cream everywhere, in his orange hair, on the tip of his red nose, on the corners of his chapped lips, after they had all sung the birthday song to him, candles melting on top of the cake. “ _Let’s spend twenty years together, and then again twenty years more until we have no more year left, let’s become stars together,_ ” Mingi had laughed, a little drunk on laughter, sugar, and beers disgustingly warmed up by the sun. San had elbowed Mingi while Seonghwa rolled his eyes, and Hongjoong spluttered that the youngest should stop saying nonsense. Yunho had felt his heart race in his chest, thinking that spending his life with his best friend was enough.

Yunho was twenty-one and still in love with his best friend when he startled and came back to earth as Mingi tossed the ball at him. “Where did you go?” His best friend smirked, his eyes reflecting the lights of the streetlamps under his brown bangs, and Yunho blushed, giving him an apologetic smile. He tossed the ball toward the basket hoop, and Mingi patted him on his shoulder when it went through the net.

“I was just thinking,” Yunho finally replied, letting himself fall on the court, ruffling his cotton candy blue hair. Mingi went to fetch the ball again and started dribbling the ball, circling around Yunho. He followed him with his eyes.

“About what?”

Yunho diverted his gaze to the sky. Things were weird these days between them. He didn’t know if it was growing up, leaving their childhood behind and slowly becoming adults, but still meeting in the same spot to play basketball every day during summer break. Or if it was watching their group of friends getting bigger, watching couples slowly forming, falling in love with each other, and then, them, Yunho and Mingi, always the same even after years.

It was around ten o'clock, the sky was free of clouds, the horizon a mix of gold and purple merging into darkening blue, and Yunho could only hear the noise of the ball hitting the ground repetitively while Mingi was still circling around him.

"So many things have changed," Yunho eventually said, "since Yeosang, Jongho, and Wooyoung arrived."

They were the last additions of the group. Mingi hummed and let the ball go; it rolled away with a muffled sound. Yeosang and Seonghwa had been the first, blooming in between study sessions, and one day, they had kissed in the middle of the playground while the rest of them had been playing around. Yunho had felt himself melt watching them exchange shy glances, and hadn't been able to keep himself from wondering what was going through Mingi's mind as he was staring at the couple with unreadable eyes.

Mingi was a bit like an open book, one with a story written with invisible ink on its pages. Yunho knew everything about his best friend, and yet even after years of longingly staring at him, he had never been able to tell what was going through Mingi's mind.

It wasn't surprising when San and Wooyoung were the next ones, both so obvious. It had seemed so simple, so easy, and Yunho had felt envious that he didn't have the same courage as their friends - perhaps it could be easy for him too if only Mingi wasn't his best friend, the shiniest star in the cosmos to him.

"Jongho and Hongjoong are the next one, they can't fool me," Mingi snorted, and he also laid down on the ground, crossing his arms above his head.

"Bet," Yunho breathed out, feeling a little absent, lulled by the light rustle of the trees above them. He had also noticed Hongjoong's eyes lingering on Jongho's golden skin more than once. He turned his head to Mingi, gulping when he was met with his best friend's gaze.

"I guess we're the only ones left, now," the brunet mumbled, and even if his mouth was stretched by a smile and one of his eyebrows was raised teasingly, his voice was weirdly serious.

"What, are you suggesting we should date, too?" Yunho laughed it off like he was used to doing, hiding the feelings that always threatened to overflow through his eyes whenever he looked at his best friend, whenever Mingi hit him with a little comet called hope that never failed to pierce through his chest.

Mingi didn't answer, merely raising fingers to Yunho's bright blue hair, still vibrant even when the streets were only illuminated by flickering streetlights. Yunho didn't know what to do with himself, shivers running through his spine as he felt his best friend's nails against his scalp.

"Maybe it's time we both stop pretending we don't know we've both been in love with each other since middle school," Mingi murmured, his voice delicate, hoarse, and Yunho frowned, feeling his brain blank out.

"What?" He sat up, his eyes wide, and twisted his body to look at Mingi, who was also sitting up, looking like a bird that had fallen of his nest, disoriented and confused.

"What?" His best friend asked in turn.

"We both love each other?" Yunho repeated, stunned, his mind clouded by these words that wouldn't stop playing again and again in his ears, while he felt unable to understand them. "You love me?"

Mingi blinked at him. "You didn't know." It wasn't a question, but an affirmation, one that seemed to surprise him just as much. "I thought you knew," to which Yunho shook his head with a disbelieving chuckle.

A minute of silence weighted on them, odd, awkward, as they didn't know where to stand in front of the other.

"Mingi, you're an idiot," Yunho eventually snickered.

"You're an idiot, too!" Mingi frowned, looking like an offended puppy, the light hitting his face directly revealing a growing flush on his cheekbones.

"We're really meant to be, then," and he was overtaken by a burst of unstoppable laughter, tears welling up in his eyes, and he was quickly followed by his best friend.

When Mingi discreetly entangled their fingers, he slowly stopped laughing, both struggling to catch their breaths back, and he was met with the sight of the other's serious, focused black eyes, fixated on his mouth, still tugged up by the remnant of his smile. The time came to a stop when Yunho watched his friend tilt his head and slowly lean forward, the reality of Mingi's confession suddenly hitting him full force.

"Are you going to steal my first real kiss, too?" Yunho asked childishly, the joke not matching the tone of his throaty voice. The tip of their noses almost touched, and Yunho felt himself go a little cross-eyed.

"Unless you don't want to." Mingi's breath caressed his skin, and his heart skipped a beat.

"Please," Yunho finally answered, vaguely aware of how inarticulate he sounded as his gaze was stuck to Mingi's lips, but his best friend understood his request well enough.

The brunet's tongue tasted like minty cigarettes, soft when it grazed over his bottom lips after he had roughly bit it, and Yunho felt the pitiful moan growing at the base of his throat as he grabbed the striped white and yellow flannel of Mingi's shirt.

They became boyfriends on a summer evening, and stayed there, kissing, talking, goofing around, dozing off on the blue basketball court that had watched them grow from teenagers to young adults, fight, play and fall in love. Until the sun made its reappearance in the horizon, painting it with lilac and bringing its oppressive heat back on the awakening city. They fled to Yunho's small student room, where they shared popsicles, sprawled on a bed too small for them both, only covered by their underwear, closing the curtains of Yunho's room when the blue sky started to match his hair.

Yunho fell asleep with Mingi's thumb rubbing his cheek, his lips mouthing on his neck soft words that were oh-so-him. He was lucky he had fallen in love with his best friend.

"You taste like summer."

"You mean like sweat?"

"I mean like happiness, but sure."

**Author's Note:**

> hopefully you enjoyed this, leave kudos and let me know your thoughts!!
> 
> [twt](https://twitter.com/mingiopom)  
> [cc](https://curiouscat.qa/etoilephilante)


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